so i was just messing around on 10 meters saturday afternoon, not really expecting much, and all of a sudden i start hearing Europeans coming in like they were down the street. worked a handful of stations in Spain and Italy before it faded out maybe 45 minutes later. honestly hadnt heard it open like that in a while, at least not on a weekend when i actually had time to sit down at the radio.

also been meaning to mention — saw that Icom apparently announced something new in the mid-range HF lineup, think it was at one of the Japanese ham fairs. havent found a ton of details yet but supposedly its aimed at the same market as the 7300 which i guess makes sense given how popular that radio has been. anyone seen any actual specs floating around or just the usual vague press release stuff?

oh and the ARRL DX contest is coming up if anyone cares. i always forget about it until like the week before and then scramble to set stuff up. maybe this year ill actually be ready ahead of time, but probably not if im being honest.

yeah i caught that opening too, was running the KX2 portable from my backyard and managed to snag a German station on like 5 watts which made my day. 10m when its actually open is just something else, nothing really compares to it for that kind of skip. i remember cycle 23 being nuts for it and it feels like were slowly getting back toward something decent again, fingers crossed.

on the Icom thing, i saw a blurry photo on one of the Facebook groups but couldnt make out much. someone in the comments was saying it might have remote head capability built in which would be interesting for mobile use, but who knows how reliable that info is. ill wait for a proper announcement before getting too excited, ive been burned before by the rumor mill on this stuff.

oh man i totally missed the opening, was out running errands all afternoon and saw people posting about it later. so frustrating. i feel like every time conditions actually do something interesting im not at the radio. i just got my general a few months ago and havent really worked much DX yet so im still chasing that first real Europe contact on HF. one day.